


I Gave Back Your Dress and You Took Back Your Disease

by Scalpel Slut (Taar)



Category: Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
Genre: Cleaning, Dresses, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Possessive Original Percival Graves, Pre-Night at the Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb, Renovations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:27:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26905861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taar/pseuds/Scalpel%20Slut
Summary: (This fic can be interpreted as romantic or platonic. Either way, there is nothing truly explicit.)Sometime after the opera, Shilo invites Graverobber over to remove her Father's obsessive memorabilia about her mother.
Relationships: GraveRobber/Shilo Wallace, Marni Wallace/Nathan Wallace
Kudos: 8





	I Gave Back Your Dress and You Took Back Your Disease

"Are you sure that you even want to do this now? I know that it has been quite a while since it happened, but it does seem like a pretty big jump."

Shilo stood in the doorway, pausing to blink her eyes a few times. No, she wasn't ever going to be ready for this. A year wasn't enough time to get over her father's death, but if she didn't do it now, then she may never do so. Besides, she could appreciate the help Graverobber could give her. Sighing softly, Shilo finally shook her head in response.

"No, I'm not ready, but I don't want to live anymore like this. Everywhere I look, I'm reminded of them… It's not that I don't want to think about my parents, but there has to be more to my life than their death."

"Fine. I understand, I guess. I just… yeah! Let's go ahead and get started with the renovation!"

Graverobber welcomed himself in as soon as Shilo stepped slightly out of the way. Almost instantly, he took the time to unstrap his boots (Shilo had been obviously upset when he had stepped in with them on the last time he had been over.) Laying his coat across a chair, Graverobber paused when he looked up from where he was standing.

"I keep on forgetting that your fake dead mom is always watching us…I definitely get why you want to get her out of here now."

Shilo watched him shiver slightly. For a man that spent his time with dead bodies, her mother's hologram sure did seem to disturb him. Maybe it was something about her actually looking and seeming to be so alive. Sighing, she held up the bags that she had been carrying.

"We're taking those weird portraits down first. I'm tired of my mom watching me change."

"Do you need someone else to watch you change?"

"Graverobber. Stop. Now's not the time."

He quickly shut up, apparently pulling himself back together. Fine. He would take the portraits down first. Taking a breath, he was already reaching for the nearest holographic portrait. 

"Not to sound weird because I know how I've called you many various forms of pretty, but you look a lot like your mom. I mean, I know that you're supposed to act a whole lot like her, but she's beautiful! Nathan was a lucky man."

Graverobber held the portrait of Marni out from him, carefully looking it over. It was an odd compliment, but Shilo had to quickly learn that proper social skills were not Graverobber's strong suit. He meant well. Shilo could tell that much.

"She was definitely beautiful, but please never say that again. Still… thank you, but let's hurry. We have two floors of these things to take off of the walls."

Shilo had been upset with her mother for years; even Graverobber knew that. She had to be angry at someone. Shilo had been trapped inside for almost two decades, and she only knew her father. Marni was just a convenient scapegoat. It took a surprisingly short time to take down all of the photographs. Part of it was probably because they both had each other's company. Shilo had known for a while that she wouldn't be able to do this on her own. She was awfully good at being brave and keeping herself together, but even she needed to take a break from that persona sometimes. She had quite easily kept it together while they were taking down her mother's portraits. Maybe she didn't really care about taking them down.

Afterward, Shilo had convinced Graverobber to sit down for a quick lunch, although it hadn't been complicated to convince him. Instead, it seemed like he had just been waiting for her to suggest such a thing. Soon, they found themselves seated at the countertop as Shilo cracked open a box of frosted cookies. Of course, she would have something like that, Graverobber quickly decided. The cute desserts were very Shilo.

"I ate those as a kid, you know? My mom would bring them home from work when she could."

Graverobber didn't often talk about his childhood, so it had left Shilo quite surprised at first. It had been a pretty personal day, so she could understand why he would bring up something like that. She watched him look down, taking his time to lick the frosting off the cookie before eating the rest of said cookie. Cute.

"And what did you look like then? Probably some little twerp. I could have beaten you up."

Shilo found herself grinning, laughing as she did so. Curiosity finally got the better of herself as she sampled the icing by itself. 

"I had much more hair than you ever have had. I can tell you that. It all feels a little blurry, but I was actually pretty small back then. I mean, I was a child, though, so that was probably to be expected."

Shilo huffed slightly. Her hair had actually been coming in quite well! It wasn't near long enough to not wear her wig, but she was actually really proud of her start. At first, she wasn't even sure that her hair would ever grow back. 

"You're going bald anyway. We can trade places shortly! Maybe you could use all that extra hair on your chest as some toupee!"

She grinned as she listened to Graverobber huff this time around. Sure, his hair was definitely getting thin, but Shilo believed that he would find a way to keep some form of hair on his head. He was much too vain to let anything happen to his appearance that he would disapprove of."

"Shilo, sweetie, I can dish it out, but I can't take it. Let's get back to cleaning, okay?"

Shilo would consider that a win. He was always quick to give up when she would tease him. Grinning, Shilo couldn't help but laugh.

"Do you think we should throw away this dress? I know the memories you have in can't be that good, but I understand if you want to get it."

Sitting in front of a closet, Graverobber ran a hand across the dress Shilo was holding. He was absolutely positive that it was the dress Shilo had worn to the opera. There was no doubt that it was beautiful, but it had been Marni's. It may have felt strange for her to wear her dead mother's dress. Shilo looked at the dress, thumbs fiddling with the edges of the dress. It took her a moment to become brave enough to speak. 

"I know that I complain about my mom a lot. I'm not blind. I see myself blaming everything on her. The truth is that I don't have her, though. She did everything for me until she passed away. It wasn't her fault…"

Shilo only increased how she fiddled with the dress. She couldn't put everything off on her mother forever. Sighing, Shilo shook her head slightly. Maybe this had been a bad idea. Keeping everything in her home wasn't helping her mental health any, though.

"I want to give mom her dress back. She deserves to have her outfits, not me. It only hurt me, but she wouldn't have these memories connected to it. Technically, she took back her disease, so I should give her dress back too."

Graverobber looked at the girl for a moment. He could have sworn that her eyes looked to be a little damp. This wasn't something that he could understand, but the least he could do was try to help her. It was pretty obvious that he wasn't the greatest person, Graverobber new that, but that didn't mean that he couldn't care.

"Shilo. I know that your mom isn't in her tomb, but what if we put her dress there? In a way, you could be visiting the one thing left that connects the two of you. It would almost be like visiting her."

Visiting her without having to look at her preserved body every day. That even struck Graverobber as being more than a bit strange.

"Graverobber. One more question. Could we maybe find a way to cover up the room she was kept in? I want to remember Marni as my mom, not as a dead body put on display."

It could be a little difficult, but Graverobber had some ideas. He definitely couldn't blame Shilo for wanting to cover everything up in a little room like that. He would choose not to talk about how he had stolen her mother's body and removed it from its glass showcase. 

"I can find some curtains to put over the glass. It may not be all that pretty, but it would at least be covered."

Graverobber watched the corners of Shilo's mouth slightly turn up as she nodded in agreement. In that case, he supposed that his idea would do then.

"I haven't been in here for months. It really needs to be dusted and swept in here."

Shilo wrapped her arms around herself, a blank expression staying on her face as she looked at Marni's stone gray slab. She knew that she had found a lot of comforts here throughout her childhood, but her mother's grave hadn't felt like home since her father had been murdered. Maybe it could feel like home again in the coming months. 

"It's a grave, Shilo. I don't think you should feel bad about letting a few leaves blowing into a mausoleum. We can clean it up sometime in the future if you want to, though."

He paused to look around the room. A large rock as a tombstone, some wilted flowers around the edges of it."

"Shilo, do you care to explain why there's a woman sized dress mannequin here?

Shilo momentarily shifted her weight back and forth on her feet. Maybe she had been planning this for a little while. 

"Okay, maybe I needed mental support from someone to help me take the dress down her. I couldn't do it alone. Dad had this mannequin in his room, and I would hear him talk to it sometimes. I figured it would just make sense to put mom's dress on it." 

Graverobber wasn't sure if that was her greatest idea, but he wouldn't protest. At least her mother's form would no longer haunt the house. Plus, he wouldn't have to see Marni's false bust staring at him every time he would come over for a visit. If he had to dress up a mannequin with Shilo, then so be it. It was easy to imagine that it had already worn Marni's clothes. Maybe it had even been hers at one point. He would make a mental note to suggest genuine therapy for Shilo in the future.

"I can help you with that. Maybe it's something that Marni and your father would both want?"

Shilo slowly nodded. Marni would have loved to have her clothes so well taken care of. Nathan would have loved to have still a form of his wife displayed, even if it was just a black dress on a brown cloth mannequin. It wasn't the perfect memorial, but Shilo believed that it would do. Before she could notice, Shilo caught herself sniffling slightly. Arranging the house into something more livable would be a hard journey, but Shilo believed that she could be ready for it. 

"I think they would like that, you're right. We can put the dress on the mannequin now."

Shilo caught herself crying slightly while they slid the black dress over the mannequin, but she wasn't sure if it was because she was sad. In a way, it actually felt like a relief. Marni may not have actually been there, but Shilo could still feel her love.

"Graverobber, tomorrow, can we go through dad's room? I would like to see what's in there and make sure that it's all situated correctly. I don't plan on using it, but dad probably would like it."

"Of course, we can, Shi. I'll be here in the morning too.

Also, have you considered therapy?"


End file.
